I've set up a dedicated machine for MediaPortal to see how well things work when using Windows 7 32 bits. So far, so good. Installation was fairly easy and the machine is running steady for about 15 hours already. Couldn't get NewCS to work though. I'm guessing because the Smargo got assigned COM5 instead of COM3 at my machine. I did change it in the config file, but I'm guessing NewCS can't handle it very well. So I left the Smargo on my server with Windows 2008 R2 and the MediaPortal stuff on the other dedicated machine. I've used the latest v1.01.02.501 driver by the way. I'll post more in this topic once it has been running for a longer time.
Help for Terratec PCI HD users, new beta driver works great (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter narsor
- Start date
Another update. My server has crashed again yesterday and again last night. This with the Terratec Cinergy card being removed. I'm wondering what the problem can be. I still did have MediaPortal and the BCD update installed, but I can't imagine software to crash a whole server. It must be driver related. Since I also was still using the Smargo reader on my server, I'm expecting that to be the cause of all the crashes. I have removed the Smargo from my server now. Going to give it another try to get it to work on my dedicated Media Portal machine. Let's see if my server stays up this time...
- January 20, 2010
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Norway
I guess a dedicated server is needed. My server has been on for 2 weeks straight with the beta driver. No crashes.
I also don't understand why it did work for about a week but then stopped working. I'm now struggling with getting the NewCS to work on my dedicated Media Portal machine. It crashes when it tries to set the baud rate on the Smargo reader at startup. What OS and cpu architecture (32/64 bits) are you using to host Media Portal Nordemoniac?
I already tried hosting a virtual machine with Windows XP SP3 32 bits on the dedicated machine using VirtualBox and creating an USB mapping for the Smargo reader, but couldn't get that to work either. I can't figure out why NewCS does work on some machines here, but not on all.
I already tried hosting a virtual machine with Windows XP SP3 32 bits on the dedicated machine using VirtualBox and creating an USB mapping for the Smargo reader, but couldn't get that to work either. I can't figure out why NewCS does work on some machines here, but not on all.
Found a new driver for the Smargo reader. Installed it on my server and going to give it a last chance since I can't seem to get NewCs to work on my dedicated Media Portal machine. Using Media Portal sure takes a lot of time and patience to get to work 
- January 20, 2010
- 72
- 5
- Home Country
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Norway
I'm using Windows 7 x64. I still haven't experienced a crash. I'm using NewCS, MDAPI and acamd. My cardreader is omnicard 3021.
Two days have passed and it still works now. Might it be that the Smargo beta driver is the solution to all the problems and the Terratec drivers weren't causing this? I wonder. Let's see if it will keep working for another couple of days.
And five days after installing the new driver for the Smargo the stuff is still working smoothly without any crash! Recordings are performed perfectly and image quality is good. It's starting to look hopeful again Would almost consider putting the Terratec Cinergy back into my Windows 2008 R2 x64 server to see if the cause of the crashes was indeed the Smargo and not the Terratec. I'm going to give it a few more days of testing this way before I'll take that risk again
Others finding this topic and also using a Smargo SmartReader Plus, I'm using the v2.08.08 driver now which seems to work well. It can be downloaded from here (direct download link) or via this page. Do not use the v2.08.02 driver available on that page as that causes trouble.
Would almost consider putting the Terratec Cinergy back into my Windows 2008 R2 x64 server to see if the cause of the crashes was indeed the Smargo and not the Terratec. I'm going to give it a few more days of testing this way before I'll take that risk again Others finding this topic and also using a Smargo SmartReader Plus, I'm using the v2.08.08 driver now which seems to work well. It can be downloaded from here (direct download link) or via this page. Do not use the v2.08.02 driver available on that page as that causes trouble.
Things seemed to work pretty smooth on my separate Media Portal box after switching the Smargo SmartReader Plus driver to v2.08.08. So I decided to give it another try to move all the stuff back to my Windows 2008 R2 server a couple of days ago. All runs smooth and no crashes anymore. Guess I can conclude the Smargo v2.08.02 driver was really the cause of all the crashes.
MediaPortal even runs pretty well now. I only noticed that when trying to view to some channels, MediaPortal gets stuck. Sometimes it auto recovers after a minute and sometimes I need to restart the TV service manually. Digging deeper into the cause of that I installed MediaPortal on another Windows 7 x64 Ultimate machine with a Digital Everywhere FloppyDTV DVB-C card inside. Because I'm using Windows Media Center 7 on that machine to watch TV, I used the FloppyDTV drivers which simulate a DVB-T tuner since Windows Media Center 7 does not have support for DVB-C cards. This wasn't a big deal for Media Portal. It does also recognize the card as a DVB-T tuner obviously and requires a custom XML with the frequency mappings between the simulated DVB-T frequencies and the actual DVB-C frequencies. Once done, it finds all the channels and works pretty smooth as well. Only, again, I noticed some channels caused problems. Comparing both machines I found out that all transponder streams in the 300 Mhz range didn't pick up any channels while scanning for channels. The ones close to the 300 Mhz range would be flaky or cause MediaPortal to get stuck. That gave me the idea to check the specs of the television signal booster I'm using in my home coax network. And there it was. No boosting of the signal between 300 Mhz and 470 Mhz. Right where the problematic channels reside. Meaning if the television signal is weak, MediaPortal can get stuck. Even starts to sound logical in some way.
Time to go out and look for a decent signal booster. This one was only two years old and not even the cheapest brand. Guess I'll play on the safe side this time and go for a quality assured Hirschmann. Later today two guys from the cable company will come to measure the signal strength so I can be sure to create a well balanced coax network in my house.
Hope this finally solves the last problems with Media Portal. The guy I bought the Terratec Cinnergy card from a few months back already warned me it wouldn't be an easy job to get it all going. How hard can it be I thought back then. I know now. It's a nice hobby, but time consuming for sure too! I'll update this topic with my findings after installing the new signal booster.
MediaPortal even runs pretty well now. I only noticed that when trying to view to some channels, MediaPortal gets stuck. Sometimes it auto recovers after a minute and sometimes I need to restart the TV service manually. Digging deeper into the cause of that I installed MediaPortal on another Windows 7 x64 Ultimate machine with a Digital Everywhere FloppyDTV DVB-C card inside. Because I'm using Windows Media Center 7 on that machine to watch TV, I used the FloppyDTV drivers which simulate a DVB-T tuner since Windows Media Center 7 does not have support for DVB-C cards. This wasn't a big deal for Media Portal. It does also recognize the card as a DVB-T tuner obviously and requires a custom XML with the frequency mappings between the simulated DVB-T frequencies and the actual DVB-C frequencies. Once done, it finds all the channels and works pretty smooth as well. Only, again, I noticed some channels caused problems. Comparing both machines I found out that all transponder streams in the 300 Mhz range didn't pick up any channels while scanning for channels. The ones close to the 300 Mhz range would be flaky or cause MediaPortal to get stuck. That gave me the idea to check the specs of the television signal booster I'm using in my home coax network. And there it was. No boosting of the signal between 300 Mhz and 470 Mhz. Right where the problematic channels reside. Meaning if the television signal is weak, MediaPortal can get stuck. Even starts to sound logical in some way.
Time to go out and look for a decent signal booster. This one was only two years old and not even the cheapest brand. Guess I'll play on the safe side this time and go for a quality assured Hirschmann. Later today two guys from the cable company will come to measure the signal strength so I can be sure to create a well balanced coax network in my house.
Hope this finally solves the last problems with Media Portal. The guy I bought the Terratec Cinnergy card from a few months back already warned me it wouldn't be an easy job to get it all going. How hard can it be I thought back then. I know now. It's a nice hobby, but time consuming for sure too!
I'll update this topic with my findings after installing the new signal booster.This afternoons signal measurement by the cable guys and their professional equipment turned out that my signal booster was pretty crappy. It did indeed raise the signal with the promised 20 db but it also introduced A LOT of noise on the line. And the gap in the signal was a fact. The experts have drawn me a nice picture of the perfect home cable network for my situation including signal filters, splitters and endpoints. Going to get a Hirschmann GHV 830 C eco signal booster tomorrow and install the filters. All the strong signal television channels work fine with MediaPortal now, so I expect all channels to work well after replacing the signal booster